The agreement came after seven and a half hours of talks between Iran and world powers just outside Geneva, where Tehran also agreed to grant the United Nations access to a newly-revealed covert uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom.

The meeting at a Swiss villa included the highest-level direct talks between the United States and Iran in three decades.

Under the tentative plan, Iran would ship the bulk of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is enriched to about 3.5 percent, to Russia, where it would be further refined to 19.75 purity, still far below nuclear weapons grade, a US official told reporters in Geneva.

French technicians would then use the material to produce fuel rods that would be returned to Iran to feed the reactor, which Tehran says will run out of fuel in the 12 to 18 months, added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

"The potential advantage of this, if it's implemented, is that it would significantly reduce Iran's LEU stockpile which itself is a source of anxiety in the Middle East and elsewhere," said the official.

Iran, the official said, came to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "a few months ago" with a request to replace the Tehran reactor's fuel supply, last provided by the Argentine government in the early 1990s.

The IAEA then conveyed to the Iranians a joint US and Russian proposal under which Tehran could use its own LEU stockpile as the basis for its needed reactor fuel.

The official hailed the plan as a "positive interim step to help build confidence" on Iran's controversial nuclear program following the talks between the Islamic Republic and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- China, Russia, France, Britain and the United States -- plus Germany.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is set to travel to Tehran this weekend to iron out the details of the plan and the powers and Iran will reconvene at a meeting in Vienna on October 18 led by experts from the UN nuclear watchdog.

earlier related report
UN atomic chief due in Iran as pressure mounts
The head of the UN atomic watchdog was expected to arrive in Tehran at the weekend after Washington and its allies demanded quick progress from Tehran in revived talks on the nuclear standoff.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei will meet Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, an Iranian official said in Geneva on Friday.

The visit will take place at the start of the Iranian week, which begins on Saturday, he added.

US President Barack Obama on Thursday demanded swift and "constructive" action from Iran following the crucial nuclear talks in Geneva on Thursday, and warned that his patience for dialogue was limited.

But Obama conceded the meeting between six world powers and Tehran, which included the highest-level direct talks between the United States and Iran in three decades, marked a "constructive" start to defusing the nuclear standoff.

The talks were the first for 15 months, and Western officials in Geneva acknowledged that it marked Iran's "engagement" on its nuclear programme after they said Iran refused to talk about it since July 2008.

France said the talks were a "step in the right direction" but added it would judge results through Iran's actions, while Russia voiced "cautious optimism" so long as the agreements were respected within the set timeframe.

Senior US officials in Geneva said part of the outcome might temper more immediate fears, especially in the Middle East, that Iran had accumulated enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear weapon.

Iran insists it has a right to civilian nuclear energy, but the partly covert buildup of its nuclear programme in recent years, especially uranium enrichment, has fulled suspicions in the West and Israel that Tehran is hiding a nuclear weapons programme.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator who led Tehran's delegation at the Geneva talks reiterated late Friday upon his return that enriching uranium was his country's "legal" right.

"The right of (uranium) enrichment is part of Iran's absolute right. One of the legal rights of Iran is to continue enriching activity for peaceful purpose," Saeed Jalili told reporters at Tehran airport minutes after he arrived from Geneva.

Iran agreed to cooperate "fully and immediately" on a second enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after the Geneva talks on Thursday.

But the six powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- expected IAEA inspections to be allowed within two weeks, he added.

A senior US administration official said ElBaradei's visit would deal with the issue, following an outcry over Iran's belated disclosure last week of construction of the underground uranium enrichment plant.

Iran also struck a tentative agreement with the six powers to ship some of its stocks of low enriched uranium abroad for reprocessing into fuel for an internationally-supervised research reactor in Tehran.

A senior US official said in Geneva that the move was a key confidence building measure that might remove "most" of the enriched uranium that could potentially be used to make a bomb in the more immediate future.

"If Iran agrees to send most of its stockpile of LEU (low enriched uranium) to Russia to be further enriched to provide this fuel, it will reduce that source of anxiety," the official told journalists, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Experts estimated that in recent months, Iran had exceeded the amount of low energy uranium needed to produce enough higher grade uranium to make a bomb, he explained.

Iran had first approached the IAEA several months to a year ago because its fuel for the reactor would end its lifespan within a year to 18 months, according to US officials.

The arrangement was then hatched through the IAEA after it approached several of the UN Security Council powers.

Under the deal, the uranium stocks would be shipped to Russia for further enrichment and to France for reprocessing into fuel suitable for the Tehran reactor, which was supplied by the United States several decades ago.

However, the agreement is only "in principle" and the technical details need to be worked out at a meeting of the IAEA in Vienna on October 18.

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